Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“Today’s report by Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary amounts to yet another attempt to tell the people of Northern Ireland to move on, nothing to see here, when we all know what the truth of the matter was. It was broadcast on our TV screens.
“The key issue when looking at this report is the explanation proffered for the failure of the PSNI to seek to enforce the regulations which lawmakers broke. On this point the report is quite explicit. We are told that: “The PSNI prioritised security and public order over enforcing the Regulations. Whatever was written in the Gold Strategy, it seemed to us that the priorities of senior officers were, in order:
• that the funeral should pass off without violent incident or serious disorder;
• that the funeral should pass off without any of the more provocative symbology associated with paramilitary funerals;
• and that – a perhaps distant third – there should be no serious breach of the Regulations.”
“However it is dressed up the report will therefore only serve to confirm one of the key beliefs about the handling of this funeral – that the fear of Republican violence meant that they were treated differently.
“Tellingly, the PSNI failed to keep proper records of their dealings with Sinn Fein and Gerry Kelly “chose not to share” his account of conversations with the police. It would seem that the PSNI find it opportune not to leave an accurate record of their dealings with the Provisional movement.
“Today is a bad day for policing in Northern Ireland. Once again the public have received the message that if you can muster enough muscle on the streets the laws which apply to everyone else can be ignored.”